Learning (or not) from Vietnam

We hear it over and over again from Bush's shills and hacks: Iraq is not Vietnam. They say it and shout it because once the "other half" of America (the Bush voters) see our country has been marching down the same disastrous road, the end will begin.

All of America should be pondering what Vietnam meant: American casualties (1964-1975): 58,266 dead (61% under 21); 303,000 wounded, more than 100,000 seriously; 2,338 missing in action.  Estimated Vietnamese casualties (1954-1975): over 3 million North & South Vietnamese, military and civilian, dead. And Laotian and Cambodian deaths in the hundreds of thousands. The financial cost of Vietnam for the US: $150 billion ($650 billion in today's dollars)